The SYSTEM (Strengthening Your System to Energize Momentum) Series is designed to help communities more effectively end homelessness by providing tools to help communities:
- Identify areas where they can make the most meaningful improvements to their systems;
- Continuously execute on those improvements for the greatest impact, and
- Leverage their Notice of Funding Opportunity (NOFO) application for the CoC Program competition to kick-start efforts to build a more effective system.
The 2022 SYSTEM Series update includes updates on emerging priorities that all effective homeless response systems must be prepared to address, as well as insights on issues and areas that the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) has prioritized in the FY 2022 CoC Program Competition NOFO.
Build an Effective Homeless Response System: Getting Ready for the CoC NOFO
What does an effective homeless response system do? What elements enable a homeless system to make real impacts for people experiencing homelessness? And how can you start thinking about the CoC NOFO as a vehicle to make decisions and investments to achieve such a system?
Building a Data-Driven Response to Homelessness
CoC data is a fundamental tool for understanding any homelessness system’s performance. The following resources explore how to best understand and leverage CoC data, to guide decisions on program investments and allocations.
Data Tools
- HUD System Performance Measures Guidance
- HUD HMIS Fact Sheet
- HUD HMIS Data and Technical Standards
- Rapid Re-Housing Performance Benchmarks and Program Standards
- Rapid Re-Housing Performance Evaluation and Improvement Toolkit
Data Resources
- Homeless System Response: Non-HMIS Data (2022)
- State of Homelessness Report (2021)
- State Solutions to Ending Family Homelessness (2019)
- The Demographic Data Project (2019)
- Reallocating Permanent Supportive Housing (2016)
Data Blogs
- Examining Data: Exploring Unsheltered Family Homelessness (Alliance Blog, August 2019)
- Visualizing Progress: How Do We Translate Data? (Alliance Blog, April 2019)
- Addressing Racial Disparities Among People Experiencing Homelessness: Start with Data (Alliance Blog, August 2018)
Addressing Racial Inequities
Racial disparities are present in nearly all homeless service systems, and it is up to CoCs to reduce these disparities and promote equity. CoCs should assess racial disparities in program outcomes, identify barriers to achieving racial equity, and take steps to eliminate these barriers in their systems. This process should include input from people of different races and ethnicities, especially those over-represented in the local homelessness system.
Race Equity Resources
- Advancing Racial Equity: Community Highlights
- Alliance Racial Equity Network Toolkit
- HUD CoC Analysis Tool on Race and Ethnicity
- Racial Disparities in Homelessness – Interactive Data Visualization
- Racial Disparities in Homelessness – Data Snapshot
Race Equity Publications
- Moving The Needle: Leveraging the CoC Program Competition NOFO for Justice and Equity (Alliance Blog, August 2022)
- Moving Beyond the VI-SPDAT: Integrating Your System’s Values into Prioritization (Guest Blog, May 2022)
- Centering Black People: Moving Away from Colorblind Policies in Homelessness Systems (Guest Blog, January 2022)
- Racial Disparities in the Homelessness System: Even the NOFA is Telling Us to Act! (Alliance Blog, August 2019)
- Data on Race, Ethnicity and Homelessness (Alliance Blog, August 2019)
- Race and Ethnicity: Demographic Data Project (Alliance Research Brief, July 2019)
- Racial Disparities in the Homeless System: Moving Forward (Alliance Blog, January 2019)
- Addressing Racial Disparities Among People Experiencing Homelessness: Start with Data (Alliance Blog, August 2018)
Reducing Unsheltered Homelessness
Unsheltered homelessness is on the rise, especially in West Coast cities. People experiencing unsheltered homelessness are more likely to experience homelessness for a longer period than people who are sheltered. They face unique challenges in accessing housing and services, experience serious physical, mental, and behavioral health challenges, and likely to have ongoing involvement with the criminal justice system. Systems that effectively align their resources around outreach, low-barrier shelter, targeted federal relief, and the appropriate housing programs are best prepared to make meaningful progress towards shelter and housing for those who are unsheltered.
Unsheltered Homelessness Tools
Unsheltered Homelessness Publications
- Race Equity and Unsheltered Homelessness: What We Learned at Our Conference and Where We Go From Here (Alliance Blog, March 2022)
- What Can We Learn About Unsheltered Homelessness? (Alliance Blog, February 2022)
- Unsheltered Homelessness: Trends, Characteristics, and Homeless Histories (Urban Institute, December 2020)
- Health Conditions Among Unsheltered Adults in the U.S. (California Policy Lab, October 2019)
- Would Adding More Emergency Shelter Help Reduce Unsheltered Homelessness? It’s Complicated… (Alliance blog, August 2018)
- To Address Unsheltered Homelessness, Shelter and Housing Must Be Connected (Alliance Blog, July 2018)
Reducing the Criminalization of Homelessness
The increasing visibility of unsheltered homelessness has prompted some communities to expand the criminalization of homelessness. A combination of emerging strategies and effective best practices are central to helping systems overcome harmful policies, reduce and reshape police interactions with unhoused people, and stop the cycle of fines, citations, and arrests associated with being homeless.
Criminalization Resources
- Criminalization Resources (National Homelessness Law Center)
Criminalization Publications
- Policing Homelessness: A review of the literature on policing policies that target homelessness and best practices for improving outcomes (University of Southern California, October 2021)
- Alternatives to Criminalization (Alliance Blog, June 2021)
- Is Being Homeless a Crime? (Alliance Blog, June 2021)
- No Access to Justice: Breaking the Cycle of Homelessness and Jail (Vera.org, August 2020)
Listening to People with Lived Experience
The process of incorporating insights and feedback from people with lived experience is essential to effective system design. But meaningful input means much more than sporadic focus groups or token gestures. Learn how systems can re-center their strategies around the needs and perspectives of the people they serve.
Lived Experience Resources
- Homeless System Response: Paying People with Lived Experience and Expertise (HUD)
- The Value of Lived Experience in the Work to End Homelessness (USICH)
- Beyond Mere Principle: Strategies for Truly Partnering with People Who Have the Lived Experience in Our Work (USICH)
- Integrating Persons with Lived Experiences in our Efforts to Prevent and End Homelessness (HUD)
- Making Lived Experience Count in Your NOFO Application (Alliance Blog, October 2021)
Partnering with Housing, Health, and Service Agencies
No system can go it alone. But collaborative, accountable partnerships between homelessness systems and those in the housing, health, and other human service sectors make it possible to work faster, smarter, and to make the greatest impact on ending homelessness in a community.
Housing Partnership Resources
- Partnerships Can Increase Reach of ERA to Highly Vulnerable Households (Alliance Blog, April 2022)
- Exploring the Potential Impacts of COVID-19 Emergency Housing Resources – Interactive Tool
- Using EHVs to Get People Housed: Focus Group Discussions on Challenges and Current Strategies (Alliance Research Brief, April 2022)
- Housing America: Addressing Challenges in Serving People Experiencing Homelessness (Alliance Blog, February 2022)
- What Happened After Congress Invested in Emergency Housing Vouchers: A Survey of Homeless Services Providers (Alliance Research Brief, December 2021)
Health Partnership Resources
- Expanding Options for Health Care Within Homelessness Services: CoC Partnerships with Medical Respite Care Programs (The Framework for an Equitable COVID-19 Homelessness Response, January 2022)
- Strengthening Partnerships for Better Health Outcomes During COVID-19 (The Framework for an Equitable COVID-19 Homelessness Response, January 2021)
Affordable Housing
The availability of affordable housing allows homelessness systems to operate more effectively. CoCs play a critical role in educating local leaders and stakeholders on this need and about the consequences of the continued lack of affordable housing. CoCs should communicate with jurisdiction leaders, including for the development of Consolidated Plans, about the harmful effects of the lack of affordable housing, and they should engage local leaders about steps such as zoning and land use reform that would increase the supply of affordable housing.
Affordable Housing Resources
- How CoCs Can Engage Local Leaders on Affordable Housing (Alliance blog, August 2022)
- Making Housing for Everyone a Reality (Alliance Blog, March 2022)
- Housing America: Addressing Challenges in Serving People Experiencing Homelessness (Alliance Blog, February 2022)
- Eliminating Regulatory Barriers to Affordable Housing (HUD)
- New Housing in High-Productivity Metropolitan Areas: Encouraging Production (HUD)
Anti-Discrimination for LGBTQ
People in the LGBTQ community face homelessness at disproportionate rates, and can be discriminated against when seeking shelter or housing. CoCs should implement and train providers on anti-discrimination specific to the LGBTQ community, as well as develop and/or update anti-discrimination policies at both the CoC and provider levels.